Jehu asks this question to shift culpability for the mass execution away from himself and onto divine providence. By framing it as a question, he invites the people to recognize God’s sovereign hand in fulfilling Elijah’s prophecy rather than seeing Jehu as a ruthless usurper.

The text records no verbal response from the people. Their silence implies acknowledgment of Jehu’s framing; that the fulfillment of Elijah’s prophecy, not human conspiracy alone, brought down Ahab’s house.

Jehu’s question combines political cunning with theological insight. He opens by declaring the people righteous or innocent, using the Hebrew tsaddiq, which can mean legally acquitted. He then confesses his own conspiracy against Joram, openly claiming responsibility for regicide. The question ‘but who struck down all these?’ shifts focus from human agency to divine orchestration. By asking rather than declaring, Jehu invites the people to supply the answer themselves, that God fulfilled Elijah’s prophecy against Ahab’s house. This rhetorical strategy serves multiple purposes: it deflects blame from Jehu for the mass execution of seventy royal heirs, positions him as an instrument of divine justice rather than a mere usurper, and secures public support by framing recent violence as inevitable judgment. The question’s power lies in forcing hearers to acknowledge that more than human conspiracy was at work, whether they recognize God’s hand or simply the magnitude of events beyond one man’s doing. Theologically, the question raises the perennial tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility that runs throughout Scripture.